African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1578 Puppet Government

While Austria-Hungary was planning its war preparations in East Africa, the war situation was also changing. In September, most of western and northern Bohemia fell into German hands.

Faced with the formidable German army, the various Labour Party armed forces suffered successive defeats. In the German-occupied territories, the Germans were warmly welcomed, but those who welcomed the Germans were mainly Bohemian gentry and capitalists, as well as Germans.

布拉格。

At this moment, Prague was severely damaged. Everywhere were ruins, shell casings, corpses, smoke and dust left behind after the war, as well as sandbags, furniture and barbed wire piled up in the streets from the previous street fighting. The German 3rd Bavarian Division was organizing people to clean up the battlefield.

Senior officers, including the commander of the 3rd Division, Bützker, met with some former Prague officials, businessmen, and social celebrities at the city government.

"Gentlemen, our army has officially eliminated the main force of the bandits in Prague, but the situation in Prague is still very unfavorable. The Labour Party occupies a lot of Bohemia, and there are still many Labour Party remnants in the city. Therefore, we hope that you will cooperate with our work in the days to come."

Bitzke set the tone first: "Therefore, Prague will remain under martial law. In view of the damage to local government institutions, we will organize manpower to rebuild local order. Until then, Prague will be under our trusteeship."

Clearly, now that Germany has entered the country, it has no intention of leaving. Germany is extremely coveting of Bohemia, the heart of Austro-Hungarian industry.

Under normal circumstances, the others present would certainly have been unhappy about Germany's intervention. However, after the Labour Party's rule, the local forces in Bohemia were clearly terrified.

Prague, a region that was once occupied by the Labour Party, is a place whose upper class is even more unwilling to experience it again.

"General Bitzke, we naturally welcome Germany's takeover of Prague. The Labour Party has caused us great suffering. Germany is Prague's savior. The people of Prague will never forget your kindness in liberating Prague."

Former Prague Deputy Mayor O'Connor said with an exaggerated expression that he would then begin to denounce the "crimes" of the Labour Party.

"During these three months, the Labour Party not only violated our private property and confiscated factories in Prague, but also committed murder, arson, and all sorts of atrocities. Many righteous people who refused to bow to the Labour Party were persecuted, with some having their homes ransacked and being imprisoned, while others were executed."

"At the same time, many innocent people were paraded through the streets and tortured into confessing. If you had come a few months later, I myself might have died suddenly in the street one day."

Before O'Connor, she was labeled a "reactionary bureaucrat" by the Labour Party, so she was given a job sweeping the streets. This was thanks to the fact that O'Connor was only the deputy mayor and hadn't done much before, while the former mayor of Prague had long been executed.

Of course, even so, O'Connor hated the Labour Party, after all, the menial job of sweeping the streets made him lose face.

Now that the Germans have arrived, O'Connor is only eager to pledge allegiance to them, reclaim power, and ideally, take revenge on those who have humiliated him.

Bidske showed absolutely no empathy for O'Connor's remarks, and of course, he had no goodwill toward the Labour Party either.

“Mr. O’Connell, I have deep sympathy for what you have gone through, and I believe that the murderers in Prague will receive a just verdict.”

"As for now, since you previously served as the deputy mayor of Prague, I hope you can first gather the former government personnel and restore order to some departments in Prague. If you do well, you may have the opportunity to advance further in the future."

While Bützk has no power to appoint or dismiss officials in Prague, he can decide who temporarily governs the city. Germany is clearly willing to accept those who voluntarily join the government and cooperate with it.

He continued, "Due to the Labour Party rebellion and other reasons, a new Bohemian government has now been established in Teplice, in northwestern Bohemia."

"In a few days, the new government personnel should be able to take office. Prague is the center of Bohemia, and the new government's residence will be moved here later."

The so-called New Bohemian Government was actually a puppet government supported by Germany, whose members were mainly composed of pro-German forces such as the former Austrian National Party and Germans from the Sudetenland.

At present, Germany cannot openly annex Bohemia, after all, Emperor Rudolf is still resisting in Hungary! Therefore, the central government of the Austro-Hungarian Empire still exists in name only.

Germany could only try to find a solution through local government, since the order in Bohemia had already been completely destroyed by the Labour Party, and the government of the former Austro-Hungarian Kingdom of Bohemia had been dissolved.

Therefore, Germany would not have too many concerns about creating a new Bohemian government, and in Austria, Germany has also established a new Austrian government in the German-occupied zone.

As the German army advanced into the Austro-Hungarian Empire, these puppet governments took over the land and restored governance. There were plenty of positions in the puppet governments, so when Bitzke told them this news, he was trying to get the local forces in Prague to quickly pledge allegiance.

Of course, the core members of the puppet government are still the original Austrian National Party members, so Germany, or rather Adolf, does not have to worry about the local forces in these newly occupied territories having any ulterior motives.

In reality, the original local forces in the German-occupied Bohemia had no bargaining power whatsoever; Germany was already being very generous by offering them a share of the spoils.

After all, the Labour Party dealt with them much more ruthlessly than Germany, and under the Labour Party's attacks, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's local power had already been severely weakened.

Even if they wanted to get rid of Germany, they couldn't. In the past, they controlled the grassroots of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but now they were nothing more than a pack of stray dogs. If it weren't for the need to stabilize public sentiment, Germany wouldn't really want to cooperate with them.

O'Connell was well aware of his position. He assured Bitzke, "Please rest assured, General, we will actively cooperate with your department to restore order to Prague as soon as possible and get the city running again."

Bietzker was satisfied with O'Connor's attitude, and he assured the others, "We will return some of the property that the Labour Party confiscated. After all, the Labour Party's destruction caused great damage to Prague, so the exact amount of compensation you can get back cannot be determined entirely based on the pre-war situation."

Germany occupied Prague, and thanks to the previous actions of the Labour Party, most of Prague's major assets were confiscated. Now that the Labour Party has been defeated, the right to distribute this wealth has fallen into German hands.

Germany will inevitably take the lion's share, followed by the various factions that originally occupied Prague. However, there's no need to worry about the distribution of benefits, as the Labour Party previously purged a number of people.

Therefore, the survivors of the upper class in Prague did not have many complaints. The fact that Germany returned a portion to them was enough to show its sincerity.

As for those unwilling to accept Germany's allocation, that's easy to handle. With a little manipulation, they could potentially lose everything. For example, Germany can find various ways to obstruct them and control them regarding proof of assets. ...

With the fall of Prague, the Bohemian Labour Party's situation became passive, and reactionary forces now completely gained the upper hand in Bohemia.

Although the Labour Party still holds considerable sway in many areas, it's important to understand that European Labour parties, much like those in the Soviet Union, prioritize urban areas over rural regions. This means that in eastern and southern Bohemia, where the Labour Party currently holds an advantage, much of the rural area, besides the towns, is still controlled by former Austro-Hungarian nobles and gentry.

Not to mention, as Bohemia was the industrial center of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, urban power could exert a suppressive effect on rural areas.

Prague is the largest industrial city in Bohemia, and its size is actually on par with Vienna and Budapest, only its political status is slightly lower.

In 1934, Prague's population was nearly one million, several hundred thousand more than at the same time in the previous era. The reason was simple: under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, large cities like Prague were more convenient for the concentration of people and resources.

In this time period of the previous life, Bohemia had already become independent as the Czech Republic, which also meant that it lost its original large domestic market from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Now that Germany has occupied Prague, it controls a large population and industry, and together with other German-occupied territories, the scales of victory have begun to tip in Germany's favor.

Meanwhile, in Austria, Germany is also making steady progress. German troops have now basically occupied most of the mountainous areas in eastern Austria and are rapidly approaching Vienna.

If Vienna were to fall as well, the Austro-Hungarian Labour Party would be in a completely disadvantageous position, because apart from Bohemia and Austria, the Labour Party did not have an advantage in other parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Hungarian Labour Party can only cause trouble for the Hungarian government now, but it is unable to mobilize the local masses. After all, the Hungarian Labour Party had failed once before, and Hungary's support for the Habsburgs is higher than last time.

Hungary can now be considered the last stronghold of the Austro-Hungarian aristocracy, who maintain relatively strong control from the central government to the local level.

Of course, Hungary continued to support the Habsburg dynasty, which actually became a problem for Germany. After all, if the Habsburg dynasty did not fall, it would be more difficult for Germany to fully control the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In addition, Germany faced another problem in its attempt to annex Austria-Hungary: opposition from countries such as Britain and France.

As German troops entered Austria-Hungary and established a puppet government, Britain and France naturally recognized Adolf's ambitions.

Britain and France were in a dilemma regarding Germany's annexation of Austria-Hungary, because they both hoped that Germany could resist and suppress the Soviet Union and the European Labour Party, and feared that Germany would become too powerful.

Therefore, the current idea of ​​Britain and France is that Germany can annex Austria-Hungary, but not completely. For example, it would be best if Germany only annexed a part of Austria-Hungary, while the other part was divided among Italy, Serbia, Poland and other countries.

In this way, Germany could be strengthened to a certain extent without exceeding the expectations of Britain and France. As for preventing the unification of Germany and Austria, Britain and France were completely powerless to do so.

At present, both Britain and France are in a state of semi-death, facing fierce competition from the United States, East Africa, Germany, the Soviet Union and other countries, while internally they have to suppress the wave of national independence in their colonies and be wary of the rise of the Labour Party in their home countries.

Therefore, Britain and France are now powerless to intervene in the changes in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Their only diplomatic strategy toward Germany is to sow discord between Germany and the Soviet Union and incite them to fight each other.

However, the time has not yet come for Germany and the Soviet Union to completely break off relations. Germany needs to prepare for war, and at the same time, it needs to digest the Austro-Hungarian Empire if it wants to swallow it up.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was engaged in economic development and did not want to fight Germany for the time being. As a result, the Austro-Hungarian Labour Party did not receive as much support from the Soviet Union, which was partly due to this reason.

Moreover, the Austro-Hungarian Labour Party and the Soviet Union did not share a border; they were separated by Romania, Poland, western Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Hungary.

This prevented the Soviet Union from providing large-scale aid to the Austro-Hungarian Labour Party. If it weren't for the transportation restrictions, the Soviet Union certainly wouldn't have minded changing the color of Austro-Hungary, even if it delayed its own industrialization. After all, if Germany successfully swallowed up Austro-Hungary, the Soviet Union would be the one suffering in the future.

In conclusion, the current situation in the Austro-Hungarian Empire is extremely complex, involving many countries such as Germany, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union.

However, one thing is certain: Germany holds an absolute advantage.

Now, Germany is actually most worried about Italy. If Italy makes too much progress militarily, it may get a large slice of the pie.

Therefore, Germany never intervened in Venice or the Austro-Hungarian army in the southern Alps. Adolf hoped that the local Austro-Hungarian army would cause some trouble for Italy, but he did not want to completely offend Italy.

Today, Italy can actually be considered a member of the great powers, at least compared to Spain, the gatekeeper of the great powers, Italy's overall strength is far superior.

Italy, with its population of 40 million, relatively advanced industrialization, and strategically important location that allows it to play a role in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, is extremely valuable to attract.

Adolf still hopes that Italy will side with Germany in the future, and ideally cooperate with Germany to put pressure on France from the south.

Despite Adolf's arrogance and France's current weakness, no one can guarantee a decisive advantage until the war actually begins. After all, during World War I, Germany considered itself far superior to France, yet it still failed to defeat its old rival and paid a heavy price.

Therefore, having learned from the experience of World War I, Germany would only exert even greater efforts when facing France, and Italy's role would become apparent. To put it bluntly, if Italy and France were to go to war now, it would be hard to say whether France could defeat Italy.

Therefore, Adolf and other high-ranking German officials believed that as long as Germany and Italy joined forces, Germany's chances of defeating France would be 100%.

To win over Italy, Germany couldn't directly confront it. So, it was good to let the Austro-Hungarian army in the south continue to wear down Italy. After Germany conquered the other regions of Austro-Hungary, it could then come over to mediate. This way, it wouldn't offend Italy while preventing Italy from becoming too powerful.

Conversely, if Germany fails to win over Italy and instead allows it to side with Britain and France, Germany will be in a very passive position.

(End of this chapter)